Saturday, September 24, 2011

Mystery Photos and Papers
I had a phone call the other day from Mary Nutting, the Archivist of the South Peace Regional Archives in Grande Prairie, Alberta. The SPRA have come into possession of a pile of old photographs and papers from a long-abandonned farm house that belonged to Robert James Coulter and his wife Florence Ruby Hamilton. An internet search on these names found my website and my information about this couple. But most of the people mentioned in the papers and photographs were Hodgsons from Duck Lake, Saskatchewan and Davis family members. I was able to find the Hodgson family in the 1901 census, still living in Duck Lake. I found a probable family connection between the Davis and Hodgson families, but no connection with the Coulter and Hamilton families. Robert and Ruby Coulter came from Neepawa, Manitoba where my father was born, and we have a family connection. Robert's sister Annie Mary married Robert George Buchanan and his brother William "Edgar" married Lucy Stella Buchanan. Robert probably came to the Peace River Country in the 1920s or 1930s.

Does anyone know of a connection between the Coulter/Hamilton family and the Davis/Hodgson family in north-western Alberta? The SPRA are eager to find out. If you tell me I will pass it on to them.

Who was William Herbert Davis? Who were George Davis and Catherine Yorkston? How do they connect to the Hodgsons? (These Hodgsons appear to be distant relatives of my uncle Evans Carson, but not of my Buchanan/Hamilton/Coulter connections.)

Speculation: Did the Davis or Hodgson family rent the house after it was vacated by Robert and Ruby's family? That way their family papers might legitimately be left behind, without their names appearing in the land title. I would be interested in any further light on this mystery.